Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Is the IPL party finally over....??

The story isn't over till the Fat Man sings. Welllllll..... the Fat Man ain't singing. The song is off key, anyway. And now that the guns are trained on Tainted Modi ( Shashi Tharoor was neatly disposed off) , there are several bigwigs running for cover. Behaving like machchar being pursued with a can of mosquito repellant.Shilpa Shetty has given Modi a clean chit from her side, declaring his innocence and requesting the media not to make this any murkier. Unfortunately, our journos behave like purring pussycats in the presence of Bollywood types. Nobody challenged her.... nobody asked pointed ,well researched questions about her own involvement, where she had got the money from.... whether she knew who the other investors were etc. She grandly said her piece and swept out of the venue. Anywhere else in the world, her syrupy words and impertinent references to the press, would have led to a barrage of uncomfortable questions. Instead of squirming under scrutiny, she smirked and stuck to her prepared, well rehearsed script, about the IPL generating revenues for the country, bringing glory to India etc etc. AAAARGH! **************This column appeared in the Bombay Times yesterday....There are people in Mumbai who remember partying with a tall, pretty woman called Sunanda Pushkar, who at that stage ( a few years ago) claimed she was Canadian. From all accounts she was striking enough for those admirers to goofily recall the heady evenings when Sunanda served delicious Kashmiri specialities, especially cooked by her. “ She was such a sweet and simple person,” they now exclaim, staring at the pictures of a brassy, brazen blond who has inadvertently opened a Pandora’s box and spilled far too many dirty secrets about the sleazy IPL shenanigans. So….. what happened to that sweet and simple Kashmiri-Canadian beauty? She turned into Sushi!! ( Sunanda meets Shashi – geddit?). Nothing was ever the same again. The wheeling and dealing days of Sunanda’s influential friends - the IPL high fliers - are clearly over, now that the excreta has hit the ceiling. But what will become of Sunanda – the femme fatale at the centre of the controversy? Will the dashing Tharoor make an honest woman out of her once the divorce from his second wife ( another Canadian!) comes through? Will the two of them ( Sushi) lie low and stay away from the spotlight till the muck settles down? Will Sunanda jump on the first flight back to Dubai? Will she continue to run her beauty business and spa? Or will Delhi society neatly absorb her the same way it does numerous other dodgy men and women? Strangely enough, nobody in Dubai’s small and close- knit NRI social circuit recalls coming across Sunanda at the innumerable parties this crowd is known to throw. A rather puzzled lady from Dubai, visiting Mumbai over the weekend , wondered aloud about Sunanda’s mysterious credentials, saying, “ It is such a small community of Indian and Pakistani expats living in Dubai, everybody knows everybody else. Someone as attractive and ambitious as Sunanda would have been hard to ignore or miss.” If she is indeed such a mystery woman, it is all the more surprising that our suave ministerji ( External Affairs, at that) was indiscreet enough to get mixed up with someone like her. It is a sensitive post in a sensitive ministry. Tharoor maybe a comparative stranger to desi political life, but he’s no spring chicken or greenhorn. Public life is not new to him, given his earlier United Nations posting. Assuming he fell for Sunanda’s undeniable charms and said ‘to hell with the consequences’ ( it happens), it is incredibly naïve of him to have got her and himself mixed up in the Kochi conundrum. People were openly laughing at the way he was done in (presuming he was taken for a ride, and not the other way around). But look at it another way – Sunanda may have done everybody a favour. Had it not been for her very visible presence during the past week’s scandalous developments, would anybody have bothered to dig as deep? Thanks to her quotes ( and Shashi’s, of course), one thing led to another and now the sinister plot is known to all.Though, it is said what is known so far, is but the tip of the iceberg – the complications are just about beginning to unravel. Not that it will go much beyond the point it has reached – there is too much at stake, and too many sacred cows involved ( you’d be amazed at some of the names being thrown around). With such heavyweights ( literally and figuratively) in the picture, chances are they will find a fall guy to take the rap, and everyone will go home happy. Lalit Modi? Ha! He has survived criminal charges as a student in the U.S. – this is a piece of toast for the guy. As for all those very high profile people ( Bollywood jodis included), who partied nightly in his penthouse suite at central Mumbai’s posh hotel, well….. they are sure as hell running scared right now. Who knows what sort of witch hunt will follow? From income tax raids to drug busts to match fixing charges – anything is possible. But it sure was fun while it lasted…..

19 comments:

"Express buzz" says in its column today titled, "IPL story and state power", about what R C Bhargava, the chairman of "Maruthi Suzuki" had to say, “There were CBI enquiries against me. MPs signed a petition alleging wrongdoing and most of this was because I didn’t award contracts to people who had political connections…that was a terrible time in my life…” Both sets of events need to be read together. The state in India and those who run it have remarkable powers to mess with almost anything and anyone, with little accountability. In a better democracy, the IPL allegations and its earlier chain would have been probed by agencies which didn’t require permission from a minister, with a professionally answerable prosecutor body to vet if a case was made. Such autonomous checks aren’t there. In the Maruti episode, Bhargava said he survived only because Suzuki decided to fully back him, even if it meant breaking relations with the government. Which they were able to do only because their headquarters were in Japan, not here. But, why not more domestic checks and balances to executive use of power? One big step in recent years is the national Right to Information Act, a miracle of survival. We need much more of such mechanisms and to vigorously use these, not remain spectators at a circus. Express Buzz Narendra Modi, Lalu Yadav (after alleging corruption in the ipl himself), Sharad pawar (Of course), Tharoor, how come so many politicians come like ants to honey, when huge chunks of money is involved ?

It sure was great fun while it lasted. As usual, our memory is very short. We'll conveniently forget all the drama and start preparing for the next IPL! :-)Like Govinda ji said, "It happens only in India!"

Not to mention Shilpa Shetty and Lalit Modi taking on one of the few respectable cricketers in Gautam Gambhir, and Gauti hiiting back to say I don't care for you lot.Its also time to remember how shabbily Kapil Dev was kicked out of Indian cricket by Modi, Pawar and other BCCI thugs.This is one sensational scandal and all the skelons are coming out of the closet!Cheers!Vasu

okay, mz de. i waited and waited to see you toss your head and say enuff is enuff! on tv, but you never did! you let that enfant terrible bhagat hog all the limelight with his iDiotic comments, this is the guy who writes Ipad (not iPad). our own whispering PMji returned from his amreekan trip and speedily dismissed tharoor and cranked up the SaveTheTiger cause - all that tigerwoods on US tv! the scandal pushed the murdering marauding maoists on the back burner, the ichhadhari and naughtynanda babas sank into satiny oblivion and the thwacking thakrees are taking a breather. our bootifool country is now poised for another juicy tell-all! so, rest on ye laurels, for tomorrow is yet another day! or somesuch thing.

Shilpa Shetty and others are media's gravy and the media is awed by them. The way IBN presents their news and breaking news, raises doubts about their agenda. They are making a hero out of a villain.IPL owners will naturally support Lalit Modi who gave them fortune and fame. Why Maharashtra Government is not imposing entertainment tax for IPL and who is benefitting out of itWhile the poor circus owners have to face harassment and taxes. There are 3 glittering evils which are conduits for unaccounted money which is flowing into IPL coffers. Dubai, Mauritius and Switzerland all are patronised by our moneybags, bollywood and politicians as well. And what about the missing files? In public sector undertakings, if files disappear, accountability is immediately fixed and the concerned staff is suspended. Why a scamster must get an honourable exit while a poor person gets no reprieve even if he is not guilty? Why Dantewada happens in poorer countries like India? The middleclass sympathises with these outfits but they want their fix of glamour and money at any cost. The rich never cares, having created and living in their own ivory towers. The media thrives both on Dantewada and the glamour(for trps and other favours) while more and more marginalised take to crime, terrorism and maoism.

It is not crook from Italy. It is crooks from India who are protecting their ilk. Whenever something is done to bring out the corrupt, it is convenient to use the Italy card and lay the blame to divert attention from the misdeeds of our own Indians. Whenever inconvenient questions are raised, it is sidelined by these arguments. Even if it is vendetta, it is good that someone as arrogant and as vicious like him is hanged. This same Indian humiliated another Indian, the redoubtable Kapil Dev. Money and success is not everything. Ethics is also important. What is this business of offshore facilitation fee? And sweat equity? All fancy terms to enrich at the cost of genuine taxpayers. Vendetta is a good thing if it brings out all the murky deeds by the greedy and unscrupulous. As it happens in Tamil Nadu whenever either of the Dravidian parties come to power. Atleast public comes to know the various formats of corruption. As long as the Damocles sword was hanging on Tharoor all was well but once the holy cow called Modi is touched, cries of foulplay is being raised. And the usual Italian lady at the helm bogey is raised.

rgrdng disrespect to players this is not the point here.if you want to see the disrespect aspect just noitice how the pm sits in her company,how she got nsg commandos maltreated by her italian army during rajiv days .....

rgrdng the other points like facilation fee ..... etc.,probably these were known to exist for all these 3years. why no action then.why only when tharoor was to be saved?

even rgrdng corruption aspects ,first bring out the evidence for all to see, but the manner he is being hounded ,this precedent will be enough for her to hound all indians out of india one by one.i hope it suffices

Hey Shobha,Insane views. Love the Sunanda-Sue-age. Guess being an insider has its perks...In the meanwhile, it would be great, nay, awesome if you could comment on my blog... This post, specifically: http://illegalbriefs.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/its-pep-see/

Hey Shobha,Insane views. Love the Sunanda-Sue-age. Guess being an insider has its perks...In the meanwhile, it would be great, nay, awesome if you could comment on my blog... This post, specifically: http://illegalbriefs.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/its-pep-see/

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